The third chapter of First Corinthians begins with a recital of the state of that people in the sight of God. Paul was showing them how God saw them. They were real believers, but were not walking in the Spirit, not being led by Him; they were walking as men of the world. It is always sad to see such a state in any real believer, but here was a whole company of Christians showing this bad spirit. The cause of it was in themselves; the occasion of it was the ministry of two devoted servants of God. The ministry of two such servants as Paul and Apollos gave the flesh in these believers an occasion to manifest the spirit of the world. There certainly was no need that they should walk as men. They had within them the Spirit of the living God. They belonged to Christ; they owed it to Him to lay aside all those inclinations to walk like the world, and walk as He would have them. He had died to save them from just such things among many others. They had not lost their place as children, but they had lost the place of obedient children, those occupied with Christ.

Right here is where many Christians fail to see the truth made known in the beginning and the end of 1 Cor. 3. The first verses describe the state of the Corinthians. They had lost much, but they had not ceased to be children of God. If they had, could Paul have written the last three verses of that chapter? Could he have said, "Ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's?" He told them this to bring them out of their wrong state. They were still saints, were still the assembly of God at Corinth, but they had lost their heavenly walk, and Paul was seeking to lead them back into all the fulness of a walk with God.

They were feeling and acting like the world, the unsaved, the unbelievers, and were losing untold blessing by their conduct. There are many other warnings and exhortations in these two Epistles, but the warnings here are specially applicable to many at this time. "Envying, and strife, and divisions" did not perish with the Corinthian Church. The spirit that manifests them is within believers, and they can only be delivered from its power, when it manifests itself, by the infinite power of the Spirit of God. And the way He led Paul to meet the state of the Corinthians is the only way that He works in delivering from this state. Place two statements of the Apostle side by side:"For ye are yet carnal; for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" "For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's."

Those words were true of the believers in Corinth, all true, both the one and the other. Of how many assemblies and individuals are they now? They heard the gospel preached by Paul, had believed and been baptized (Acts 18:8). There were many of these believers in Corinth, for Paul continued there a year and six months, but "in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling" (1 Cor. 2:3). It was not the eloquence of the great apostle that saved those Corinthians, but it was the "power of God" (vers. 4, 5). They had been pagan idolaters; some of them had been of the very wickedest type, as he shows in chap. 6:9-11, "such were some of you." They had not had Sunday schools, and Bibles, and Christian training. Paul's labors were followed by those of Apollos, "an eloquent man, [being] mighty in the Scriptures" (Acts 18:24).

Naturally many thought more of him than they did of Paul, and from this there grew divisions, with strife and envyings, which proved that they were carnal and were walking "as men." This was all wrong; they were Christ's and not their own. He had bought them with a great price. They were wholly His in reality, but not in manner of life. And God's way of delivering them from walking as men was to show them how different in their relations to Him and to the world they were from unbelievers, from the people around them.

Believers then and now need to be taught what Christ and the Holy Spirit have done for them; they
need to see themselves as belonging to Christ, and not to the world; as being indwelt by the Spirit of God. The Corinthian believers did not realize their wonderful place in Christ before God; they had not grasped the meaning of being saved by the finished work of Christ. They were in a wrong state, were acting like men of the world. This and its consequences are faithfully told to them, but what belonged to them as saved sinners is put before them and us also for our instruction and deliverance from the power of the world. The only way believers can be saved from being like the world in their walk is by laying hold of their vast difference from the world in the sight of God. "They are not of the world, even as / am not of the world" (John 17:14,16). These are Christ's words to the Father concerning His own; true of all who believe on Him through the word of His grace (John 17:20).

Many of these differences are well known, but what gives power to overcome the world is to have the inward knowledge of Christ which the Holy Spirit gives. The old nature that is in the believer goes out after the things of the world, but the Spirit takes of the precious things of Christ and shows them to us. It is as seeing their value that the world loses its value for faith. Christ is the most precious treasure that a soul can possess. We can love Him, worship Him, praise Him. To the heart that is full of Christ the world has no place, no attraction. It has nothing to offer but vanity. It is by losing this fulness that a believer becomes carnal and walks like men. Love of the world grows; love for Christ fades. This keeps the heart cold toward Christ. Then God has to come in with His power to save from this state. J. W. Newton

(Concluded in next number.)